Actors Get a Snowy Surprise On Stage

Sitting in the lobby of MoCo Arts, you can feel the energy surging through the building. It’s performance day. The 40 students in Frosty the Snowman chant ‘Teamwork’ backstage while their families and friends eagerly file into the intimate 100 seat black box theatre to see some of MoCo’s youngest students perform.

The house lights go down and the stage lights come up, revealing the entire cast sitting pretzel-legged on the floor for the opening scene ‘The Snowman’. As the performance goes on the classic story of Frosty is told, the kids going outside to play, finding a magic old hat, and bringing their snowy friend to life. The show is going smooth, then to everyone’s surprise, including the actors, it begins to snow in the studio! White flakes spit out of a snow-machine and down onto the kids as they perform their final number, grins so big you would think they were actually outside on a snowy day.

As Frosty the Snowman comes to a close, the kids proudly find their parents in the lobby, greeted with flowers, hugs and shrieks of congratulations. This successful performance is just another day at MoCo Arts, in two weeks they begin rehearsals for Woody’s Roundup!

HM2020 Recognized for Leading a Health Revolution

Congratulations to Champion, Yvonne Goldsberry who was featured in the Business NH magazine for her work with Healthy Monadnock 2020!

The ambitious vision of Healthy Monadnock 2020 is to make the Monadnock region the healthiest community in the nation by 2020, and Yvonne Goldsberry has been leading that massive effort from the start. One of the people who nominated Goldsberry, whose official title is Vice President of Population Health and Clinical Integration at Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, called her “the key visionary behind the Healthy Monadnock 2020 initiative” and the “go-to person for population health for Dartmouth-Hitchcock.”

Started in 2006, Goldsberry says Healthy Monadnock 2020has racked up many successes in its five focus areas of healthy eating, active living, social networking, education and the social determinants influencing health. School and organizational Champions have changed school menus, helped employees be more active and quit smoking, and created a system to label menu items at area restaurants to highlight those that are heart healthy (seven restaurants now participate).

The hospital recently received a national award from the American Hospital Association for its efforts, and Goldsberry says people nationwide call her looking to replicate the idea in their communities.

“We’re not just talking about it anymore,” says Goldsberry, who has a background in public health. “People are taking action to do something to make their community healthier.”

Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice

“I am teaming up with Pat Stack from fellow Organizational Champion and Turn a New Leaf restaurant, Elm City Bagels & Deli to offer healthy lunches for my employees. He is designing a smaller version of his menu for my office which will only include “heart healthy” items. On the last Friday of every month I will pay for the staff lunch and they can pick from Elm City’s “heart healthy” menu. Don’t have all the details because I just chatted with Pat this morning with this idea – he seems to like it and I think it will work well!” –Organizational Champion, The Insurance Source

“At this morning’s Monadnock Rotary meeting, we had Christine Laclair, guidance counselor at the Marlborough School as our guest speaker. Lori Palmisano, school nurse, also joined her. They did a great job of sharing the activities they have implemented for students, parents, and teachers towards living active, healthy lifestyles. They have seen positive results in the food choices the students are making, and are having fun trying out new foods, like pea pods and kiwi! The metrics they are tracking are showing concrete results in lower percentages of children at obesity levels. Fantastic news! Even member John Goodhue signed up as an Individual Champion.” – Champion, Robin Eichert